I will be addressing issues related to the following materials in my fourth paper. The paper will concern why the "loudness war" needs to come to an end. It is useless in modern context, does not help record sales, and can permanently damage or fatigue the human ear from extended exposure. Here is a great example of exactly how "hypercompression" is accomplished (ie by raising the average level of the track, thus minimizing the "crest factor", or the difference between the loudest parts and the softest) and what it does to the quality of the sound:

Loudness War Example

Next is an example of how the human ear hears different frequency ranges, which explains why "hypercompressed" tracks can fool the ear into thinking the track sounds better simply because the mid range frequencies are more audible in the track (the human ear hears mid and mid-high range frequencies more easily than very low or very high frequencies:

paper 3 ideas

My paper #3 will most likely be an analysis and exposition of the "loudness wars", how it has grown over time since the early 80's, its affects and connections to radio, TV and the film industry, and the negative health effects of louder and louder music over the years.

http://www.sfxmachine.com/docs/loudnesswar/loudness_war.pdf

This scholarly article addresses specifically the subject matter that I wish to investigate. I will try to compare the two fields of health sciences and music industry by examining just how the loudness wars started, where it stands today, and what sorts of things it is causing.

For one, the louder music of our modern age has led to increased hearing loss in the younger generations. Along these same lines, music is meant to be "mobile" in our current time, and such inventions as the iPod and other portable MP3 players exemplify this "mobile" mentality. The idea with mobile music players is that you can listen to music anywhere, and use it to drown out the noise around you. Music which is "louder" on average throughout can be effective at drowning out ambient noise from the environment, but it also fatigues the ear drum and the sensitive ear bones, and in many cases can contribute to hearing degradation.

I will also try to examine the relationship between music loudness and its close counterpart, TV commercial loudness. Obama recently passed legislation (the CALM Act) which has placed more regulations on the volumes at which commercials can be broadcast. Excessively loud music and commercials are degrading hearing, making us less sensitive to nuanced musical devices, tiring out our eardrums and making all music sound the same.

the "loudness" wars

My possible topic for my research paper will likely relate to music, or music industry. I don't know for sure just yet what subject matter it will pertain to, but I would like to do a study on the sorts of ways that music has changed (technically speaking, as well as how people have begun viewing music differently). I think one particularly interesting point of discussion would be the so called "loudness" wars which began in the mid to late 90's, when music (especially broadcast by radio) was a primary source of playtime and exposure for bands and artists. What happened was that bands found that by using certain tools in the production process (such as a "soft clipper", which is a special kind of compressor), they could essentially raise the overall "loudness" level of their tracks. (note that this does not mean volume, just "loudness", in terms of the average loudness of the entire track in decibels). Artists and producers found that by increasing the loudness of their tracks, they would sound more lively and "pumped up" when played over the radio, and people would then pay attention to them more. This would hold especially true if the song that came on before a "louder" song was significantly softer on the radio. Eventually (and to this very day), bands compete to make their songs louder and louder, even though radio play has taken a much more passive role in the lives of music and bands nowadays. The radio used to be able to break a new band into the music scene or help them make an insane amount of money, but now it is merely a tool used to play songs that are already popular over and over. One downside of the loudness wars is that dynamics in music have been completely lost, and this is one thing that bothers me a lot.

Odds n Endz

Just a few things that I find useful in everyday living

This frog knows whats up

My very first blog post EVER!

This is a testing post to see if I have this whole blogging thing figured out. I will be posting much more here soon, approximately 5 times a week! WOOOO!